The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for wireless remote control of an electric appliance and, more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for controlling power supplied to an electric appliance through a wireless transmission technique.
Use of various electric appliances becomes more frequent as a result of development of techniques. Due to reliance on the electric appliances, the plugs of many electric appliances in homes and companies are often left in the power sockets. However, these electric appliances still consume electricity even though they are not in use, and the electricity consumed by the frequently plugged electric appliances is not a low account in the total electricity consumption. Thus, the environmental protecting units keep teaching the users to unplug the electric appliances not in use to avoid unnecessary waste, yet the effect is limited. The main reason is that most users can not effectually unplug the increasing number of electric appliances in their busy lives.
Even though many electric appliances are equipped with switch timers and/or long range wireless controlling switches, the power saving effect is not as good as unplugging. In a different approach, a power switch timer is mounted between the plug of an electric appliance and a power socket to effectively cut off the power supply. However, the design for turning on/cutting off the power supply is complicated and rigid. Specifically, the user has to remove the power switch timer if it is desired to use the electric appliance while the power switch timer is in a mode cutting off the power supply or if it is desired to cut off the power supply while the power switch timer is in another mode supplying power from the power socket to the plug. Furthermore, the power switch timer can be used with only one power socket. A significant increase in the costs is inevitable if control of power supplies to many locations is required.
In a company or factory using a lot of electric appliances, controlling the power switches not only saves electricity but involves safety. As an example, the risk of wires catching fire exists, because the electric appliances still consume electricity even though they are not turned on. However, precise control of power requires professional workers and increases the costs of labor and time.